The present invention relates to, for example, a color image processing technique for textile printing by which the ink of a plurality of colors is jetted to a fabric or a cloth by an inkjet system, and the fabric or the cloth is printed.
Recently, an inkjet type printing apparatus is rapidly spread as a printer for the industry, office, and personal use, because a color image of a digital image is easily obtained. Under such a condition, an application of an inkjet type printing apparatus to textile printing is expected.
Incidentally, as an typical example of the conventional textile printing, there is a silk screen textile printing method. This method is a method in which a screen print is produced, for an original image to be printed, for each color used in the original image, and the printing paste is directly transferred onto the fabric through the screen print and coloring is conducted. However, this method requires a large man-hours for producing the screen print for each color, and further, because it is necessary to produce by preparing dyes of the printing paste for each color used in the original image, although it is appropriate for the case where a large amount of fabric is printed once, there is a disadvantage that the cost per one product is relatively increased in the case where, for example, small lot fabrics are printed.
In contrast to such the conventional textile printing method, according to the inkjet type printing method, sources of the ink provided in the printing apparatus are controlled by a digital signal, and by mixedly impacting the small drops of ink onto the medium and forming them on the medium, an image can be directly formed. Accordingly, because the screen print or preparation of the printing paste for each color is not necessary, the man-hours can be largely reduced, thereby, this method has characteristics that low cost textile printing can be conducted also on small lot products.
Incidentally, the color formation using the inkjet is conducted by using a color management system inherent to a printing apparatus, and generally, its specification is not changed corresponding to a medium to be printed. This is for the reason that a general inkjet apparatus assumes the paper as the medium, and in the case of the paper, because characteristics such as the ink coloring property are not greatly different depending on the kind of the paper, the change of the specification is not particularly necessary.
On the one hand, recently, an inkjet type printing apparatus which can print for the medium such as OHP or glossy paper, whose characteristics are different from the plain paper, is also developed. However, as for also the OHP or the glossy paper, its characteristics are practically constant, and the other medium to be printed is not particularly assumed, therefore, in the above inkjet type printing apparatus, only the color management system correspond to a plurality of kinds of media which can be assumed is provided, and further, even in such system, it is considered that particularly, any problem does not occur.
However, according to the result of the investigation of the present inventor, it is found that, when the medium to be printed is fabrics, the coloring property of the ink is different depending on the diameter of a thread forming the fabrics or a knitting method of the thread, further, the diameter of a thread forming the thread or the number of the threads.
Further, there is a case where the material, in which the dyes are removed from the printing paste, is coated on the fabrics in order to prevent the bleeding, and in such the case, it is found that the coloring property of the ink is different depending also on its condition or the material forming the fabrics.
Further, in the textile printing, the coloring processing is conducted by adding heat or water by a heat roller or steamer, after printing, however, it is found that the coloring property is different depending also on its method or conditions.
In addition to that, at the last of the textile printing processes, after the coloring, superfluous materials are processed by adding surface active agents in the water or warm water, however, it is found that the coloring property is different depending also on this processing.
That is, in the case of printing by the inkjet type in which the conventional paper is the object, the specification of the printing may be set only for a plurality of kinds of media whose characteristics are previously known, however, it is found by the present inventor that, even when the printing is conducted by the inkjet type in the same specification on the fabrics sorted as the same kind such as the canvas fabric, the completed shade is largely changed by the pre-processing, condition of the fabrics, coloring method or conditions after printing, further, the removal process (hereinafter, called washing process) of unnecessary contents after coloring, etc.
Further, because the processing process determining the coloring property of the ink is inherent to the textile printing company in the textile printing industry, it is impossible to unify such the processing process. Accordingly, the real state is that, for each fabric produced by each company, various products whose characteristics are respectively different, appear on the market. On these products whose characteristics are different from each other, it is difficult to print with the same or approximate color, by the inkjet system with the same specification.
Such the disadvantage is not specifically actualized in the silk screen production method by the conventional technology. The reason is why, according to the silk screen production method, when the color is formed, the printing paste is prepared corresponding to the fabrics, that is, because the color is determined by being adjusted to the actual product, it is not necessary from the first to consider the characteristics of the fabrics. In contrast to this, in the case of the printing by the inkjet method, because the ink is mixed and a specific color is formed, for example, even when the mixing rate is constant, there is a fear that the different color is formed corresponding to the characteristics of the fabrics.
Accordingly, in Japanese Tokkaihei No. 7-276673, a method in which: a temporary conversion table to convert an image signal is previously set; the correction information for the temporary conversion table is calculated corresponding to the kind of the fabric; the temporary conversion table is corrected according to the correction information; and the image signal is converted according to the corrected temporary conversion table, is disclosed. However, by the above method, when the different kind fabric is printed, in the different kind fabric, it is difficult to make the color of the reproduced image coincide with each other.
On the one hand, even when the fabrics to be printed is previously known, because the setting of the printing specification of the inkjet system is a complicated operation accompanied by the data exchange, it is generally difficult to conduct such the operation by the operator side.